Cruise Planners : A Corporate Finance Veteran's Perfect Exit Strategy With Cruise Planners

In this Cruise Planners franchisee video, a former Cemex (and prior Rinker Materials and American Express) finance and accounting leader walks through why Cruise Planners turned out to be the perfect exit strategy from a corporate career that had stretched into 60, 70, 80, even 90-hour weeks. The story starts with the construction-market downturn that pushed Cemex to cut headcount and outsource projects overseas. Around the same time, her husband was looking at franchise concepts — Subway, McDonald's, an insurance brokerage — and the conversation turned to her own exit. He pointed out that she already planned every trip the family took, and suggested Cruise Planners would fit her natural project-management style. She bought a Cruise Planners franchise in January 2012 with zero travel-industry background. What she values most as a business owner is time control. Four hours, twelve hours, fifteen hours — the schedule is hers. Saturdays at the office in corporate America were mandatory; Saturdays inside her franchise are a choice. She no longer commutes ninety minutes each way; her office is a few steps from where she lives. She describes the experience as stress-free, fun, and beneficial — the opposite of the corporate grind she left. Her advice to people considering a similar move is direct: it's okay to start your own business. You don't have to work for somebody else. You'll learn, you'll work hard, and you'll succeed — but you have to have faith in yourself. Looking back, the only thing she would change is starting earlier. The Cruise Planners closing tagline frames the model: work from anywhere, be your own boss, travel the world.